


Northern Trysts

by PurpleMoon3



Series: Bite Sized Bits of Fic [19]
Category: A Song of Ice and Fire & Related Fandoms, Rise of the Guardians (2012)
Genre: AU, In Media Res, M/M, Nudity, Prompt Fill, that escalated quickly
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-08-31
Updated: 2018-08-31
Packaged: 2019-07-05 04:42:38
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 707
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15856440
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/PurpleMoon3/pseuds/PurpleMoon3
Summary: King Robert the Unwed sits unhappily on the Iron Throne while Elia and Rhaeneys are safely tucked away in Dorne.Meanwhile Oberyn is determined to seduce a god in the most obvious way possible and Eddard did not sign up for this shit.





	Northern Trysts

**Author's Note:**

> This was supposed to be Jack/Oberyn and turned into Jack/Oberyn/Ned. This is why I do not write on lunch breaks.
> 
> For the [Promt: any, any m/m, Skinny dipping during the winter.](https://comment-fic.livejournal.com/936752.html?thread=109026608#t109026608)

This, Eddard Stark thinks as Prince Oberyn is brought dripping before him, is not how it was supposed to be. It should be Brandon, may he and father rest with the gods, standing as Lord of Winterfell. Not _him_. Not the _Quiet Wolf._  
  
The Fosterling.  
  
The Unbeliever.  
  
(He knows what is said of him, though it is not said with malice. The South is a godless land, the smallfolk commiserate, and he is Stark. The North believes in _him_ even if he no longer believes in _It_.)  
  
“Leave us.” Eddard says with a tired gesture, and the Great Hall empties. There will be talk. It is unavoidable with the Viper’s reputation, said snake’s state of dress, and Eddard’s own lack of marital bliss. “May I ask, Prince Oberyn, why precisely you felt the need to profane the sanctity of the godswood with such… honesty?”  
  
Someone had loaned the Dornishman a cloak – presumably to protect some woman’s modesty as it was clear the man had none for himself. Eddard doesn’t let his eyes drift below the tanned man’s chest.   
  
“Lord Stark,” Oberyn smiles generously and bows theatrically, the cloak falling open with the motion, and with his arms spread wide the action becomes more of an offer than a show of obedience. “I simply wished to pay my respect to your gods.”  
  
“Human sacrifices were outlawed by King Jahaerys.” Eddard stated, voice neutral.   
  
“Well, I would not call it a _sacrifice_ as such.” The shameless man is smiling, watching something -some _one_ \- beyond the Northman’s shoulder. Eddard sighs and looks up toward the ceiling where frost creeps along old beams and older stone. Loops and swirls of sparkling white bloom into flowers and, Lord Stark sighs at the sight, proud plumed cocks. The familiar stab of loss beats painfully in Eddard’s chest.  
  
He cannot _see_. He is Lord of Winterfell but he cannot _see_ -  
  
Because seeing is believing but he does not believe. He _knows_.  
  
It should be Brandon standing here, defending the virtue of an Old God of Winter from the Desert Prince. Looking at the man, muscled and mirthful and wild, for a moment Eddard thinks his older brother has come back to him. Brandon had slipped into this man’s skin as the stories (history) says wargs slip into wolves. Are there wolves in the desert, or simply wild dogs?   
  
“Am I so unimpressive, Lord Stark? I assure you, the cold may shrink a man but-“   
  
He was distracting himself.  Eddard shakes his head with a rueful smile. He cannot begrudge the man that has become so fascinated with the North and its legends. A Spirit of Winter saved Oberyn’s sister, saved Eddard’s sister, and had nearly unmade itself in the process.  
  
“Perhaps that is so below the Neck.” The Lord of Winterfell bares his teeth and thinks of his first born son, clutched to his southern mother’s breast as windows rattle from the wind that wants, desperately wants, to welcome the newest Stark into the world. “In the North, the chill helps us grow.”  
  
He has never noticed the cold except in the abstract; to Robert’s envy and his estranged wife’s disquiet.   
  
“O-ho?”   
  
He wonders what would have happened if his father had called Ice as his champion as King Aerys did Fire. It would have been a song for the ages, no doubt.  
  
“Next time you wish to visit the godswood let the guards know, please. Most good folk prefer to keep their prayers _private_.”   
  
Most folk don’t appear to be possessed and trashing about in a pond. In Winter.  
  
“As you say, Lord Stark.” Oberyn replies still grinning, still shameless, still naked but for a wolfskin coat.  
  
As the Lord Stark brushes past the Prince of Dorne for the servant's exit Eddard calls, “Meet me in my chambers after tonight’s feast.”  
  
For a moment Eddard thinks there is another smile floating beside Oberyn’s own, with bared teeth so white they shine like freshly fallen snow.  
  
The moment passes.  
  
He doesn’t believe.  
  
He knows.  
  
(It cannot be a sin to love the man, Eddard thinks that night as his bed is filled for the first time since his wedding, it cannot be a sin to love a man that the old gods themselves love.)

**Author's Note:**

> This is basically a little scene from an highly developed Alternate Timeline I'm probably never gonna have the time to write. Basically, Planetos is Earth after WWIII was fought with bio-engineered weapons. The first Long Night was brought about by nuclear fallout that set off several latent genomes from the bioengineered people as well as causing White Walkers and Others to populate. Oh, and during the war earth also got knocked into a wibbly-wobbly orbit and continents got rearranged.
> 
> As for RoTG? Jack never became a Guardian, Pitch 'won' and thus in a world covered in fear and darkness people make stupid decisions and blow up the planet. By the time GoT rolls around Pitch now goes by the name of R'hloor _as well as_ the Great Other. He's playing both sides for maximum profit. North is dead, but not before assisting in building the Wall and other great keeps that were meant to be shelters against the Radioactive Zombie Apocolypse. The other guardians are still around but much reduced, with Sandy as the strongest of them and Bunny the weakest. 
> 
> Jack's pond, after millions of years of continental drift, is now located next to a certain weirwood tree in the godswood of Winterfell. Jack mostly hangs around the North, he likes the cold, and has adopted the Stark family as his own. Most of the kids can see him while they are kids, and even a few adults. After hearing about Lord Stark and Brandon's deaths Jack followed Ned south to ensure the same didn't happen to him, and went a little beserk during the sack of Kings Landing and caused a 'false winter' that nearly killed him he spent so much power out of his season. Rhaeney's can see Jack, and at first mistook him for a Targareyn relative, which allowed him to convince her to convince her mother to skeedadle after he turned The Mountain into a popsicle.


End file.
